Kenya: IEBC Asks Supreme Court To Dismiss Case Questioning Ruto's Eligibility
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The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has asked the Supreme Court to dismiss a case questioning the eligibility of Deputy President William Ruto and his running mate Rigathi Gachagua to vie.
IEBC’s objection was filed by Olendo, Orare, and Samba advocates.
The commission has backed Ruto and Gachagua’s argument that the case filed against them is defective, the Standardmedia reports.
In its objection to the case filed by the 11 petitioners led by Kenneth Njagi and Meshack Suba, the commission argues that Supreme Court has no powers to invalidate or validate nominations of candidates in a general application.
According to the commission, the integrity issue raised by the petitioners will lead the court to interfere with IEBC’s role.
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The petitioners want the court to determine whether Gachagua is fit and suitable to hold any public office in the wake of a recent ruling of the High Court, directing him to forfeit Ksh202 million to the government over graft.
Ruto and Gachagua jointly argued that the criminal and forfeiture cases against Gachagua have not been settled by the court and, therefore, the duo cannot be disqualified unless Gachagua has exhausted the appeal process.
According to the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) leaders, the case has been passed by events as the election has already taken place arguing that it should wait until the tally is done and a winner is declared.
Meanwhile, Kenyan media stopped broadcasting the provisional results of the country’s presidential poll, raising questions over the outcome of the vote as the counting process entered its fourth day on Friday.
Kenya’s electoral officials on Friday blamed the delay in announcing the result of the country’s presidential election on candidates’ agents for slowing down the national tally of votes.